And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 9:8 Go To 2 Corinthians 9
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you. This is an answer to an objection: You will say to me, If I give much, I shall become poor, I shall be unable for the future to help my servants and others who are in more need (Theophylact). To this the Apostle answers: Do not be afraid of that; believe and hope in God, who is able to make all grace (or beneficence—Syriac) abound toward you, so that you shall always have a sufficiency of goods, out of which you may abound in every good work. God can and does enrich those that give alms, so that they have always means to spend, and so can abound in works of charity.
God is able denotes not only the power but also the act of God. The phrase is a meiosis. Similarly, a king might say to his commander-in-chief: "Go, end the war, spare no expense. I am able to bear it, and to enrich you as well."
In the Greek there is a beautiful use of the word all, which is three times repeated in the last clause of this verse, "always having all sufficiency in all things." Not in some particular necessity, but in all; not at one time, but always; not some sufficiency but all sufficiency will God give you, to enable you to succour others.
Again, S. Paul does not here speak of abundance, says Theophylact, but sufficiency, enough for one"s self and one"s own. Perhaps he means to imply that he who is content with his lot, and has enough for himself and his family, desires no more. God alone is properly said to be self-sufficient, being One who has no need of any one, and rests wholly in Himself. An almsgiver partakes of the same character. An avaricious Prayer of Manasseh , on the other hand, is never satisfied—"the more that waters are drunk the more are they thirsted for;" and so it is with riches. Hence the avaricious man is always in need. But self-sufficiency, as Clement (Pædag. lib. ii. c12) says, is a virtue which makes us contented; or it is a habit of mind that is content with such things as are needful, and which by itself acquires those things which belong to the life of bliss. Hippias (Suidas, sub Verbo Hippias) made self-sufficiency or a contented mind the end of all good. Moreover, Epicurus used to say that "sufficiency is the richest possession" (Clement, Strom. lib. vi.). In the same sense Cicero said (Paradox1) that "to live happily, contentment was virtue enough." Socrates, too (apud Plat. Dial3de Legibus), thus prays: "Let me have as much gold as a temperate man can bear." For further notes on this subject, cf. 1 Timothy 6:6, and Philippians 4:11.
